Cruising, vacation, and keto

(Danielle) #1

I’ve been keto since March, and have lost 32 pounds, so I’m very pleased. When I started, I already had my vacation booked - a one week cruise followed by a week in London. My first goal was to stick to keto until I went on vacation, and I’ve proud of myself for doing that.

I plan to resume keto immediately after I return, and my goal for vacation is to not go crazy, but not to put any pressure on myself to stick to keto completely. I know there are going to be times when sticking to keto is going to be difficult, if not impossible, and I’m okay with that.

I would still appreciate any tips others can provide. What has worked for you on vacations where sticking to keto was not always possible, at least not everyday?

(Jay AM) #2

I’ve never been in a situation where I didn’t have meat and fat on vacation. I figure cruises probably look a lot like Las Vegas buffets and restaurants and also like every other restaurant. Considering I’ve found keto at every restaurant I’ve been to (including Indian, Mexican, and all fast food.) I’m sure it’s very possible to stay keto if you wanted to. That said, make a plan for resuming keto after the vacation if you decide to go off. Don’t expect to maintain all your weight loss during this time either. Be careful with alcohols especially high carb ones as they can cause a double whammy of hangovers and stay well hydrated. Try to limit your carbs still and not make it an all day carb binge. If you search for vacation here in the forum, you’ll find a lot of threads on the topic too. You should be fine to resume when you’re back, enjoy your vacation.

(Brian) #3

I seem to recall someone on here talking about going on a cruise. From what they said, it wasn’t nearly so bad as they had anticipated. The selection is pretty much, well, huge. And that means that there is a good bit of stuff that is at least on the keto friendly side.

Stuff like omelettes for breakfast, steak for supper, salads, lots of veggies available, etc.

If ya happen to eat some carbs, so be it. Try to keep the carbs light even if they’re a little more than what lets you remain in ketosis. Enjoy the special events. Dr. Fung even says, if you’re at a birthday party and you can, have a piece of cake. No, he doesn’t say eat the whole cake. But if you do have one, make it a small one and enjoy it thoroughly.

:slight_smile:

Enjoy the cruise! It’s something I hope to do someday.

(bryan vandyke) #4

Just did a Hawaiian cruise last summer no real problems. The cafeteria seemed to be organized around picky kids eaters, vegetarians, etc… Salad bar, build your own burgers, several meat choices. Very easy to eat Keto.

Main dining room menu similarly easy to order around to suit my tastes. Fine dining seems to equate to nice cuts of meat and lots of fat.

Did my best with local restaurants. But it was vacation and local food, so didn’t stress it. Also Hawaii, luau, whole roasted pig. Yum.

Even taking advantage of the free ice cream. Many, many times. I still lost 5 lbs, which ticked the wife off. :grin:

The biggest problems were with the box lunches provided on excursions. Shitty sandwiches with almost no meat, cookie, apple, and a can of coke. Those, I refused to eat. Luckily one trip was to the mauna loa macadamia nuts factory and lots of free samples. :yum:

(Robert C) #5

I think the big question for me would be whether this is something you’ll be doing 3 to 5 times a year or if this is a once-in-a-decade type event.

If you’re planning on trips multiple times a year (cruises, Las Vegas - i.e. to generally decadent food environments) then I would follow the advice of analyzing menus, looking for keto options, avoiding box lunch trips (or bring your own) etc. Keep your keto flag flying as best you can - and plan to learn more as you go.

But, if this is a big and very rare long planned trip - I would focus on (and let my decisions be made by) how I would feel if I skipped out on some of the things I had traveled so far to be around. I am not saying go wild and drop keto or anything. I am not saying have chocolate cake just because you are on your trip (you can get cake anywhere). But, if you talked yourself out of Fish and Chips in a fantastic downtown London restaurant (that prides itself on having great Fish and Chips) and had some boring old sausage and a side salad instead (to avoid carbs) - it might feel like a mistake after you’re back home. London also has some of the best Indian food that I have ever had - much better than I can find in California (you’ve paid quite a price to get this access - in this scenario, might be best to use it). Another example is that traditional Yorkshire Pudding is very non-keto but, if you have never tasted one, wouldn’t be back in London until 2025 and the restaurant has won the award for best Yorkshire Pudding in the UK for the last 5 years - well, you can guess my answer.

The other part is how you’ll handle pressure from other’s you are traveling with. If they know this is just the nth trip this year of many similar trips - I am sure they will be understanding.

If instead, everyone knows this is very rare trip, with an exotic destination, you’ll probably find people starting to get upset if too many restaurants/bars/pubs are “out of bounds”.

PS - Of course my suggestions about trying non-keto foods as part of a very rare trip assumes you are not on keto to keep a medical situation under control.